Alcohol Permit Denied for Huntington Beach Music Festival

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About 10,000 people are expected to attend the Wet Electric dance festival on Saturday — unless a lawsuit filed by the Huntington Beach is successful. (Credit: wet-electric.com)

An electronic dance party will go on as scheduled in Huntington Beach on Saturday, but it will do so without alcohol.

The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control denied Wet Electric’s application for an alcohol permit on Friday.

The board felt the alcohol service plan submitted by the organizers wasn’t sufficient enough to ensure public safety, ABC spokesman John Carr said.

According to Carr, the board felt there was a lack of coordination with local law enforcement and that raised enough public safety concerns to deny the application.

City leaders had filed a restraining order to stop the all-day rave expected to draw some 10,000 people to Huntington State Beach.

Attorneys for the city of Huntington Beach argued that the party violated zoning ordinances, according to court documents.

But Orange County Judge Jamoa A. Moberly ruled in favor of the festival organizers on Wednesday

For $100 per ticket, concertgoers can enjoy performances by 12 DJs, water slides and zip lines, according to wet-electric.com.

Concert promoters reportedly applied for and received the required permits for the event, whose location is regulated by the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

But city officials were loath to see a possible repeat of July 28, when rioting broke out in Huntington Beach following the U.S. Open of Surfing. Two hundred and fifty police officers were summoned to quell the melee, which resulted in the arrest of seven people.